Hillary, Michelle and Big Bird

Could there be anything more telling about the difference between Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama?

Michelle Obama -- introduced by Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- tells diplomats and staff at the US mission to the United Nations in New York that she has just come from Sesame Street.

"...I never thought I'd be on 'Sesame Street' with Elmo and Big Bird and I was thrilled. I'm still thrilled. I'm on a high....I think it's probably the best thing I've done so far in the White House."

At the same time in the first term of her husband, Bill Clinton, Hillary was maneuvering to design and implement a plan for national health insurance.

Comments

[lynninny]

What are you trying to say? Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges. What is your point?

[luvangelHussein330]

mkay...obv­iously your article or lack thereof was ment to be a snark....b­ut I digress. Yes, right out the gate Hillary was out there making a name for herself on policy issues...w­eather or not they were an epic fail is another story. What matters is that it is what Hillary wanted to do. Since before President Obama won the electin First Lady Michelle made it clear that the most important thing on her White house plate woud be her family more specificaly her children. If thats what she wants to do then so be it. Stop preojecting your own agenda onto the First Lady. If there is a policy issue you want addressed then get out there and make it happen if you have the time and resources to do it instead of tearing another woman down for her choice to be there for her children..­..what part of femenism is that?

[4real]

And if Michelle got involved in all of her husbands issues people would be saying she's trying to take over the WH.

I like how she is handling herself. She's taking it slow. And maybe she doesn't want to get into policy issues. There's nothing wrong with that.

[shel3364]

What's your point?

That health care thing didn't work out too well for Mrs. Clinton as I recall, and its haunted her ever since. It was this type of behavior that made it seem like she was of trying to have a co-preside­ncy...some­thing else which has haunted her.

I don't know if your intent was to diminish Michelle Obama's contributions, but she's doing just fine by me and about 80+% of the country.

[oregonbird]

Not to be obvious, but how'd that work out for Hillary? The First Lady, in case you didn't notice, is working on future votes. She's hitting middle and high schools. Ten year olds are going to go back and check out Sesame Street -- because the First Lady is on. Democratic votes, during the next two national cycles, are going to go through the roof. Some of that will be due to Michelle; young people will be voting, especially Ethnic-Americans. (I'd say minorities, but they really aren't, are they? Young Republicans, on the other hand....)

[strangelet]

You know, I am a big admirer of Secretary Clinton, and voted for her in the primary, but this article is utterly pointless.

It has been manifestly clear since the earliest part of the campaigns that Mrs. Obama planned to act as a "traditional" First Lady. It hardly required a visit to Elmo to know that her aspirations for her role are vastly different from those that Secretary Clinton initially held as First Lady.

So what?

[hulagirrrl]

There is no comparison between these two ladies, could you imagine Hillary telling you she is on a high because she was on Sesame Street?
This time around they are doing it right, instead of the wife of the president, he himself will introduce health care to the US, and that is rightly so, after all he was elected to do that!

[thesimulacra]

You forgot to upload the part of your article where your point stops being interminably vague.

[DennyCrane]

This is an unfair comparison. Hillary was appointed by her husband. She didn't earn the position. And we all saw how she failed. Democrats can blame the Republican opposition, but what really did Hillary in is was having so many closed-door meetings. At least this time, health care reform is bringing all the players to the table. I found this article to be an insult to Michelle Obama. Michelle is just as accomplished and capable as Hillary was. But unlike Hillary, Michele doesn't need to ride her husband's coattails to get anywhere.

[propitiousmoment]

Hillary doesn't deserve to be dissed either. She was every bit as qualified to work on the problem as any other politician at the time, and she had the time to do it without putting some other job on hold. From what I remember, she did a great job on it substantively, but not so great on the public relations - i.e., they didn't market it well and the message got subverted by the anti-reformers.

Otoh, Michelle is also qualified to do such a job, on any number of issues, but taking a lesson from the way Hillary was vilified and also from early in the election cycle the way she was portrayed as an angry black woman ("the second coming of Angela Davis" as I read in a comment on another thread) she did the politically correct thing and subordinated her talents and ambitions to her husband's reach for the presidency. She was extremely courageous to do so, in my opinion, and it is to be hoped that her sacrifice, which paid off in the long run by getting her husband elected, will pay off in the even longer run by making it possible to ease her way back into substantive work on the issues that matter most to her. She's building a base of favorable opinion that will effectively knock out the critics when it is her turn to get down to serious business again.
Neither of them s/b diminished by comparing them.

[klondiker]

What is the point of this post?? I find these attempts to compare Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama a way to divide. Why compare them? Sure, they have different interests and different aspirations, but they have both tried to contribute to their country in their own way.

And, by the way, Hillary Clinton appeared on Sesame Street also.

[DeloresT]

What's the point? Michelle O. said that she wanted to be Mom in Chief, not a member of Barack's administration.

[VSamuels]

Michelle is not looking to become President, but Hillary supporters must fing a way to justify the behavior of Hillary Clinton, and give her the skills she did not earn as a result of first being an UN-elected co-equal. Michelle has the same stage presence and definitely commands attention when she comes into any room, but she simply is resigned to allow her husband his space to run the nation, and accepts her role as the non-controversial spouse.

Yet, for the Hillary supporter they must probe to uncover some motive behind Michelle's apparent unwillingness to be as ambitious as Hillary, sure something must be wrong---with her otherwise? This is simply the mindset of those hellbent on raising the incompetent campaign of one Hillary Rodham Clinton once again on the prosperity this time of the Obama Administration.

[Mnemanth]

Your point? Or do I need ask?

[ThinkCreeps]

And given the success of the Clinton health campaign, the Sesame Street appearance must be at least as effective in improving the health of the US.

[luvangelHussein330]

LMAO....